Greater Richmond Campaign for Grade-Level Reading

The Campaign for Grade-level Reading partners with school districts, nonprofits, corporations and other organizations to collectively increase third grade reading proficiency across the Greater Richmond and Petersburg region.

Campaign for Grade-level Reading Updates

Announcing the relaunch of the Campaign for Grade-level Reading!

United Way of Greater Richmond & Petersburg is pleased to announce the relaunch of the Greater Richmond Campaign for Grade-level Reading! The Campaign brings together a number of initiatives that increase early literacy among all students in the region.

The Campaign for Grade-level Reading first launched in 2012 in collaboration with Bridging Richmond and Smart Beginnings. The Campaign will retain that same collaborative spirit while simultaneously offering a clearer and more diverse suite of activities to help young children learn to read on time.

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RVA Youth Development Network

The RVA Youth Development Network (YDN) brings together people who are working in the Out-of-School Time, youth development and education fields for networking, relationship building and shared learning. The network is a collaborative effort of United Way of Greater Richmond & Petersburg, NextUp RVA, YMCA of Greater Richmond & Petersburg and the Mary and Frances Youth Center at VCU. Learn more.

Partner

United Way Literacy Kits

Throughout the year, we collect and assemble more than 1,000 United Way Literacy Kits that are distributed to students in our region. Each kit includes schools supplies, an age-appropriate book, information for parents and supplies for children. Get involved.

Steps to Success Early Learning Trails

United Way builds and installs educational trails in local parks. These trails help parents, caregivers and communities use everyday moments outdoors to boost school readiness of children in their preschool years. These interactive trails contain 10 signs with expert-approved learning games, each with fun and easy activities for children and adults to do together. Learn more.

Richmond Youth Program Quality Intervention

The Richmond Youth Program Quality Intervention (YPQI) is a partnership between United Way of Greater Richmond & Petersburg and the Mary and Frances Youth Center at VCU, dedicated to providing a continuous quality improvement process to local youth serving organizations. Our research-validated assessment tool guides us in providing targeted professional development trainings to encourage the use of best practices when working with students in after school programming. The current cohort includes over 25 non-profits in the greater Richmond area, helping 47 different sites to assess, plan and improve their youth programming. Those sites serve 5000+ youth annually. Learn more.

Take Action

Attendance Awareness Month

Chronic absence is a problem we can and must solve if we want all children and youth to benefit fully from an education that prepares them for success in school, work, and life. All of us can make a difference by helping students and families feel engaged in learning and their schools, setting the expectation that school attendance matters, and working together to identify and help families overcome barriers to getting to school. Community partners are especially important for helping schools and families address and overcome tough barriers, such as limited access to health care, unstable housing, poor transportation, or neighborhood violence.

Join us as we declare September Attendance Awareness Month in our region!